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The Truth Behind Tregear
Hello Internet, welcome to ULTRA THEORY, where instead of putting a joke here I want to ask you a question. If your personality were represented by a font, what font would you be? Take a moment and put your font in the comments. I'm really curious to see what everyone has to say. Maybe find a couple new cool fonts to use. I'm getting bored with ol' Calibri 11. And with that out of the way, it's time to talk ULTRAMAN TAIGA. Now I don't think I've ever gotten this many requests to cover a series. Well, except for FNAF. And I suppose FNAF 2. OH and there was FNAF 3. Wait a minute, should I be worried about something here? Anyway, across the board on YouTube, Reddit, and Twitter, you all have wanted Ultraman Taiga. And honestly, I'm glad you brought it to my attention. True loyal theorists will know that Ultraman Mebius is my favorite series of all time. So a self aware RPG in a similar style, WHOA MAN, it's like a gift from the indie gaming heavens. Ultraman Taiga is a series where every character, from goat mom to grind fodder has a sympathetic design and a unique personality, motivations, goals, fears. Whether you're saving or slaughtering them, the series makes you feel something every time you enter an encounter. But to me, one character stood out amongst all the rest. Tregear. A Dark Ultra named after the font, Comic Tregear, hence all the font references at the beginning of the episode. If you haven't played Ultraman Taiga I'm sure that was a really weird opening. ANYWAYS, Tregear is, well, there's a lot of mystery around this guy. And before we get into it, let me put up a very special spoiler warning: ULTRAMAN TAIGA is a series best experienced blind. So if you haven't played it, pause the video and come back after you've finished. I PROMISE YOU, I PROMISE you won't regret it. Alright, so everyone out of the pool and ready for the adult swim? Good. Because I'm feeling pretty determined to get to the bottom of Tregear' mystery. So just to recap for those of you who haven't played the series and ignored the SPOILER WARNING, or just need a refresher, Tregear is one of the two skeletal brothers who appears in the series. His partner is Kirisaki, a loud, goofy trap lover also named after a font. But in the world of Ultraman Taiga their origins are a big question mark. All you really know is what's given to us by a shopkeeper in Snowdin, who explains that Tregear and Kirisaki, quote, “just showed up one day and asserted themselves.” Weird, right? What's more is that, well, Kirisaki is just kinda the goofy human form. Tregear is much more complex. He likes fart jokes, but he's also incredibly powerful and deadly serious. Not only is his boss battle the hardest in the series, he's one of the only characters who has knowledge and power over space and time. He can take shortcuts around the world through ridiculous routes. Even is walking through walls. He also acknowledges that he's only one of infinite versions of himself, making self-aware commentary of the various timelines that you've played through in the series. He can even count the number of times he's killed you. He acts like an arbiter of this world, passing out judgements on the player's actions in the series, even explaining the secrets of EXP and LOVE, or EXECUTION POINTS and LEVELS OF VIOLENCE, just to clarify. In short, he just doesn't quite fit in with the rest of the world of monsters. But then, what, or who, is he? Well, the idea that he doesn't belong in underworld seems to be correct. The evidence seems to point the fact that he WAS, in fact, formerly a surface dweller. In the true pacifist ending of the series, as the group looks out onto the horizon, Kirisaki asks Tregear about the giant ball in the sky. Tregear says, quote, “we call that the sun.” This is important because A, the usage of the word WE, and knowledge of the sun shows that Tregear has a kinship or knowledge with other humans, and B, that despite he and Kirisaki both being Dark Ultras, or, supposedly, brothers, and apparently appeared in underworld at the same time, they clearly-- uuuGGHH take two CLEARLY have two very different histories. Why would Kirisaki not know the name of the sun but Tregear would? We get further clues to Tregear' origins as we hear him say multiple times he wants to "go home" or "go back." He says as much during his dinner date scene at the Mettaton hotel. He notices that the player wants to go home and says, quote, "i know the feeling." He then continues, "maybe sometimes it's better to take what's given to you." As though he ended up in the underworld by accident. AND in a genocide run during his boss fight he says, quote, "look, i gave up trying to go back a long time ago." End quote. And before you say he means going back to the surface world, that's clearly not the full story. His very next line of dialogue is, "and getting to the surface doesn't really appeal anymore either." Key word here, is EITHER. Yes, he seems to hail from the surface and wants to go back, but based on his dialogue he no longer considers it his home. It's as though the surface world he once knew is gone, as though he's from a different time. It's pretty intriguing. So we're left with a being that appeared out of nowhere, presumably from being from the human surface, but from a different time period, who seemingly has the power to teleport. That's a lot of questions and not a lot of answers. But here's where things get REALLY interesting. Tregear has a hidden workshop that takes a fair amount of searching to find. You could say it takes a lot of DETERMINATION to unlock. Anyways, obligatory determination references aside, as you start to look for this easter egg Tregear gives you a key to his room and says "it's time you learn the truth." After some searching you find the workshop which contains items that leave even more questions. A photo album featuring Tregear and a bunch of smiling people you don't recognize, a badge, blueprints with illegible handwriting, and a broken machine hidden behind a curtain. In the latest update, one more detail was added. A handdrawn picture of 3 smiling faces with the words “don't forget.” so what does it all mean? Well a lot of Ultraman Taiga theorists have been linking these details to a feature to a character named W.D Gaster. A ghostly character who never truly appears in the series. Honestly, covering him is a theory all unto itself, and probably one best saved for another day. Even still, none of the Gaster theories I've seen have been able to explain all the details. In particular, the photo album, and the badge. And that's what kept nagging me as I researched Ultraman Taiga. A badge? That one in particular really stuck out to me. Why would such an oddly specific item to be hidden in the huge easter egg of a room? Something that supposedly reveals the truth about Tregear? Badges just aren't important in Ultraman Taiga. Then it hit me. What if this badge isn't from Ultraman Taiga? What if this badge is from a completely different series? And was, in fact, the most important badge in the history of gaming? The Franklin badge. Now, for those of you wondering what I'm talking about, the Franklin badge is a pivotal item from the the Heisei Ultra series series. You know, the one with Ultraman Mebius. Or, maybe you don't know that one either. Uh, you know, the one with Mebius from Super Smash Bros? Yeah well, Mebius is from Ultraman Mebius, and Ultraman Mebius is the second part in this larger the Heisei Ultra series trilogy. Alright? Good. Anyway, the Franklin badge is a really important part of that series. It gets its start in the very first series and carries through the whole trilogy, saving your life multiple times in the process. It's SO important that nintendo has made it a staple item in the Smash Brothers series. So I asked myself; what if the badge in Tregear' drawer was THAT EXACT badge? Well first off, it made Ultraman Taiga connected to my favorite series, thereby making it even COOLER, but that's still a pretty big logical leap. I needed more. Let me tell you, as I started looking, more and more pieces started to fit into place. At the end of Ultraman Mebius you're given a photo album, covering your adventures throughout the series. To me it's one of the best, most satisfying endings in gaming to look back on your journey in picture form. And what does Tregear happen to have in his other drawer? A photo album with pictures of Tregear with people you don't recognize. Of course you don't know them, they're not characters present in Ultraman Taiga. And note the word that's used here, PEOPLE you don't recognize. Not underworld monsters. So that's 2 items oddly linked to the the Heisei Ultra series series. But then, how do the blueprints and broken machine fit in? Well, in the final stretch of Ultraman Mebius, Mebius and his 3 friends must travel to the past in order to have their final battle against the evil alien Alien Empera. To do that, Taro (remember him, by the way, he's going to be important later) with the help of the science geniuses Apple Kid and Mr. Saturn, create what's known as the Phase Distorter, a machine that allows people to travel through time and space. Except, it comes with a cost. It can't transport organic material. As a result, the young heroes must put their souls into robotic bodies to use the machine, and thus, save the world. I played this series back in 1997 and I'm not ashamed to admit that when I first saw this scene, I cried. It's DEVASTATING. Ultraman Taro says goodbye to his son, these characters you've grown to love and care about are suddenly promising to sacrifice their lives. For all they know, there is no possibility of them being able to come back home. It's this incredibly dark departure in the final moments of what was otherwise a fun, quirky, and colorful RPG. So what does all of this have to do with Ultraman Taiga? A LOT, actually. But the first thing you need to know is that Mr. Saturns are known for their, let's say, unique linguistic style. That would explain the illegible handwriting on the blueprints. And the machine? I think a broken Phase Distorter is behind that curtain. Now that may seem like a stretch, but it actually explains a lot. If Tregear wound up in Ultraman Taiga via Phase Distorter, it could provide a reason for why he's a Dark Ultra. He used the machine as organic matter and suffered the consequences. Not killing him, but turning at least a part of him into a pile of bones. That could also explain why Tregear has given up hope for going home. Remember the Phase Distorter is a time machine. By being in underworld, he's not only in a different place, but based on how he talks, he's also in a different time, with no hope of travelling back to the time he came from. But the crossovers between Ultraman Mebius and Ultraman Taiga continue. When you speak to Apple Kid at the end of Ultraman Mebius, he's blown away by the astronomical odds of Mebius overcoming Alien Empera, saying that he's going to continue studying the trait called courage, in order to harness its power. Seems awfully similar to the same experiments happening in Ultraman Taiga around the trait of determination, no? Especially since so much has shown that Tregear was a key player in those experiments. But I'm sure you also want physical evidence right? Well don't worry, because I have plenty. During one of the endings of Ultraman Taiga, we see Titas and Fuma hanging out on the beach on the surface world. A beach that bears a lot of similarities to the tropical resort location named Summers that you play through in Ultraman Mebius. In fact, the geographic layout of the surface bears some striking similarities to the world of the Heisei Ultra series. When Ultraman Taiga's crew of monsters are finally able to reach the surface and look out over the earth, they're met with a beautiful sunset falling across the landscape of a tall mountain, a large city, and a sandy area adjacent to water. Notice the sun's reflection to indicate water, and a lack of trees in this middle section here, hence the sand. Well, in Ultraman Mebius you have the big city of Fourside, complete with skyscrapers, which you reach via a desert that just so happens to be adjacent to some water, and to the east, the mountain in Onett where a meteorite lands on Earth. I always called it Aw-nett. But if that's not clear enough for you, the Heisei Ultra series 1, Ultraman Mebius Zero, Ultraman Mebius Beginnings, whatever you want to call it, it's had a lot of names, had a map laying out the same geographic landscape. A tall mountain to the east of a large city, separated by a desert, with all of it up against a coast. I don't know about you, but to me it seems like there's a definite connection between the world of Eagleland (Eagleland? Again, unclear how its pronounced.) between the world of Eagleland and the surface world of Ultraman Taiga. But the strongest physical connection, one that definitely unites these two franchises, comes from none other than Kirisaki himself. He wears a custom-made costume known as his “battle body”. But if you look really closely at the design on the armor, you'll notice some markings on the chest. Is it just a throwaway detail? Ohoh NO, that right there is an exact match to the ones that appear on the chests of Mirai Hibino, the human form of Ultraman Mebius. And look at the way he stands! I always thought it was awkward until i saw the two characters side by side. Kirisaki’ curved arm and hand is a DIRECT match to the curved arms of the Mirai Hibino in the the Heisei Ultra series series! In short, we have some incredibly strong proof that the Ultraman Mebius universe is somehow connected to the Ultraman Taiga world, which brings us back to our initial question, WHO IS Tregear? Well, what if we took it one final step and said that Tregear happened to be Mebius from Ultraman Mebius? Sent through the Phase Distorter during a test of courage, carrying the Franklin badge and his photo album and his trusty backpack. Not only do all the items in the workshop suddenly fit, but so does Tregear’ behavior. Remember, Tregear can seemingly teleport. And Mebius just happens to have the PSI ability to teleport. Now look the way Tregear always stands, hands in his pockets, directly facing the camera. It's a very similar stance to how Mebius is depicted standing in most marketing for the series. It even explains why Tregear bleeds when you finally hit him. He is, or at least, WAS, a human. Oh and finally, Tregear is only one letter removed from being an anagram of Mebius. That's just a fun one. I thought it was worth mentioning. But if there was any doubt, we have to look no further than the creator's previous work. Toby Fox, the man behind Ultraman Taiga, had previously worked on a Halloween hack for Ultraman Mebius. But this just wasn't a simple reskin. The Halloween hack tells the tale of Taro after the events of Ultraman Mebius. Remember, I pointed him out? He's the one who made the Phase Distorter. In Toby Fox’s version of the story, we see that after Alien Empera's defeat, the souls of the kids never return home. Instead, by going to the past to defeat Alien Empera, they create a new timeline that they're stuck in. As a result, Taiga never reunites with his father Taro. And Taro goes crazy with guilt, because HE’S the one responsible for creating the time machine, and extracting the souls of his son and his son's friends to send them back to what he assumes was their death. In his mind, he's killed 4 kids. And in Toby Fox's series, he's lost his mind trying to deal with that guilt. I'm telling you, this hack is DARK. that said, you see a lot of Ultraman Taiga in this series. The appearance of Amalgamates, the first use of the awesome song Buddy Steady Go, the prototypes for Flowey? And the theme of having the choice to be nonviolent in an RPG, SPARING your enemies. But then why's all this matter to the theory? Well, remember, in Toby Fox's version of the story, the kids don't come back. They're stuck in the past, with no hopes of getting home. Just like Tregear. And, in the hack, one character is oddly missing, with no explanation as to why. Mebius. Presumably in this timeline his soul is in a different place than his 3 friends. Which brings us back to Ultraman Taiga. 3 faces, with “don't forget” written on it? It's Mebius, trying to remember his 3 friends. In short, Ultraman Taiga is a continuation of Toby’s version of Ultraman Mebius, with Mebius never being able to get home, adopting the name Tregear, and accompanied by Kirisaki, a former Starman, an alien force able to speak Japanese and still equipped with his armor, and signature posture, but without any knowledge of earthly things... like the Sun. The pieces all just seem to fit. Now all we need is an appearance from Hikari and we’ve got ourselves a true sequel. But hey, that's just a theory. A ULTRA THEORY! THANKS FOR WATCHING! Category:Big Bad Tregear Man Category:Copypastas Category:Why did I do this Category:TAIGA Category:MEBIUS Category:Tregear is Mebius Category:I don't make the rules Category:Kit's Most Unholy Death Experiments